TEN YEARS AGO

---

Without noticing, it was already 7.00 a.m. and Parker’s stomach growled loudly. Between the laughs, the former huntress and prey decided to go out and have some breakfast.

Parker wasn’t satisfied yet. There was still a topic they hadn’t talked about, and she was far too curious to let go. Miss Parker wanted to know everything about Jarod’s past relationships with other women.

Jarod asked the waitress almost everything they had on the menu, then Parker ordered a huge cup of cofee and scrumbled eggs. She was staring intently at the pretender, a slight smile on her face.

“What?” he asked her, slightly suprised of her good mood.

“Tell me about Zoe”, she suddenly said.  

Jarod almost choked on the fruit juice he was drinking and Parker smiled in satisfaction.

After coughing for at least twenty seconds, Jarod looked back at her and noticed that her smile was still there. ‘Well, why not?’, he thought.   

“What do you want to know?”

“I’m pretty sure you’re not together anymore. If you were, I would probably kill you after tonight.”

Jarod grinned and Parker thought he was extraordinarily attractive whenever he smiled like that, “I haven’t been seeing her for almost a year, Parker.”

“Well, then I want to know why. What happened? I thought you were in love with her.”

Jarod huffed, “Love is a huge word, and we both know how difficult it is to use it with the wrong person.”

Parker nodded solemnly, but didn’t speak. Her thought – and probably also Jarod’s – went immediately to Tommy.

“Almost two weeks after our friendly rendezvous with Alex, I met Zoe. I needed to take a break. I wanted to forget about the Centre and our mothers, at least for a while. So when Zoe asked me to make a trip with her I thought it might be a good idea to have some fun and…distract myself.” Jarod tried to hide his smile at Parker’s wince when he said the word fun, “We went to California, we were having a very good time together.”

“But?” she sighed. Maybe listening to Jarod speaking about his former girlfriends wasn’t a good idea.

Jarod smiled, “How did you know there was a ‘but’?”

Miss Parker shrugged and smiled at him. She knew him pretty well, after all.

“We were doing the most incredible things together, and yet whenever she…kissed me…” Again he stopped, trying to analyze Miss Parker’s reaction, “I couldn’t help but thinking about Alex’s words.”

“What kind of genius would seriously ponder words coming from an insane sociopath?” Parker scolded him.

Jarod had a sip of his juice, “Never wondered why I came to save you and Mr. Parker that day at the shipyard?” when he saw her shaking her head, he continued, “Alex and I met at the Opera House, where I managed to save the Swedish Ambassador. He shot me, then I ran after him and when I reached him, he told me something.”

Jarod shrugged and sighed, “Something I’ve known all my life, but that I’d never really admitted to myself before that day.”

“What?”

 

Alex was talking through the bars separating him from Jarod.

“Luring you was simple. It's that flaw in your character that made it so easy. Always risking your life for somebody who's not important to your world.”

Jarod stood up, punching the iron gate and shouting, “The Ambassador is important to the world!”

Alex looked amused, “Not the world. Your world. The Swedish Ambassador? She's nothing to your world.”

Jarod leaned his head against the wall, shattered and unable to respond.

“But Miss Parker is.”

Jarod glared at Alex, his eyes willing to kill the chameleon. How could he possibly know Miss Parker? And did he have any plans, for her?

“In fact, you have no idea how important to your life she really is…”

Jarod stared at him, more and more worried, wide-eyed for the anger.

“And after today, you'll never know.”

 

“So this is why that whacky lunatic kidnapped my father! So that he could lure me to the shipyard and kill me, everything just to...”

“To strike me.”

Miss Parker swallowed hard, no longer hungry.

“Alex wanted to kill you in front of my eyes, he wanted to show me that saving all those strangers was useless, if I couldn’t save someone important to my world.” 

“And Ethan told you where to find me…”

Jarod smiled, the thought of his lost brother closed his stomach, “Yes. I went completely nuts, I couldn’t believe I was going to lose you without ever telling you how much important you really were to me.”

Parker smiled at him, “And what does this have to do with Zoe?”

“Whenever I kissed her…well, it just didn’t feel…right. I mean, there was this incredible woman, asking for some affection, and all I could think about was…that I wanted her to be someone else.”

Parker had never blushed in her life, before. But at that moment she turned at least a little pink. Jarod avoided looking at her face, he was blushing too. Which was very weird, seing that they’d just spent the last night naked in the same bed.

He coughed in embarassment, “Well, Zoe felt that detachment. I guess anyone would have. She didn’t realize it was about a woman, though, she was sure I felt uncomfortable because I still feel guilty for her kidnap.”

“What did you tell her?”

“The truth. Part of, at least. I told her about my abduction when I was a child, I explained everything about my pretender skills, about the Centre. I told her enough, and before you ask, I didn’t go into detail, I didn’t want to put her in further danger. But I’ve made a mistake anyway.”

Parker chuckled, “You told her about me.”

‘Poor Jarod’, she thought, ‘A childlike pretender who can’t understand jealous women’s scorn’.

“Well, it slipped from my mouth when I told her that you were Lyle’s sister and also my huntress. She wondered who you were and I…well, I…I sighed.” 

Parker tried to imagine the moment.

Jarod always sighed. For relief, for wrath, for hope, for sadness. That was one of his typycal mannerisms. She’d become pretty good in interpreting what Jarod’s sighs meant.

But she’d known him a lifetime, unlike Zoe.

“Then Zoe asked me what your first name was and I answered that it is a secret I wouldn’t reveal not even in my deathbed.”

Parker smiled in satisfaction, “What did she respond?”

“In spite of what you think, she’s pretty smart. She understood immediately that our relationship was more than the you-run-and-I-chase I told her it was, so I had to tell her truth. You know, that you were my childhood friend at the Centre and then your father sent you away. That when you came back you’d become the cold Ice Queen who’d been chasing me for years. You know, the same old story I tell everyone to explain our complicated and sick relationship.”

The waitress arrived with their food and Jarod stopped his tale to let her put the dishes on the table. Parker started to eat her eggs, Jarod threw himself headlong into his pancakes. He continued his tale between the morsels.

“Well, Zoe…she couldn’t understand why I cared for you even if you were my enemy. And I can’t blame her. It’s difficult to explain us…if you are not one of us, isn’t it?”

Parker nodded and sighed, “Sometimes I wonder how would I had ever told Tommy about you. Maybe I’ve never told him the truth about me and the Centre because it would have been too difficult. The fact that you actually knew him before me…” Jarod swallowed and stared at her in apprehension, then Parker continued, “Well, it changed everything. But before having the news, I often asked myself how would I explain our relationship to Thomas. Obviously at that time I hadn’t realized that I was in love with you, yet.”

Jarod exhaled the longest breath of his life. ‘There you go, one of those sighs, again’, Parker thought.

“Well, Zoe and I continued our trip. I tried to mention your name the least possible, I thought Zoe deserved it. I guess she probably was more in love with me than I ever was. I cared deeply for her, I helped her living through her cancer, I still love her. But that was not…you know.”

Parker knew.

“The day we were leaving from Los Angeles she opened my suitcase, the one with all the DSAs. I also keep my most important belongings there, including pictures of my family. My mother’s, Emily’s, my father’s, Kyle’s…and yours.”

Parker opened her eyes wide, “You keep my picture with you?!”

“Actually…” Jarod lifted his hand and move his middle and index fingers to show her the number 2.

“Which pictures?”

“The first is the one you keep in the frame on your bedside table.”

“The one with me and my mother?”

“I sneaked into your house one night and I made a copy. It’s a wonderful picture. And before you mention it, I felt entitled to take it because…oh, maybe you don’t even remember but…”

“You were the one who took it.” Miss Parker nodded.

Jarod smiled, “You remember?”

“Yes, I do. We were at the Centre and she asked you to take a picture because she wanted you to have it. She died before giving it back to you.” 

He nodded, close to tears, “I must admit I stole the second photo. It was in an album you kept in you bedroom. I guess Broots was the one who took it because you were with Debbie, it was last Christmas and you two were feeding Snowball.”

“And to think that I accused poor Broots of stealing it!” she replied, faking anger.

“Well, Zoe wasn’t so condescending when she saw them. She said that you only keep photos of people you really love. So she asked me how much important you were to me.”

 

“Like Sydney, the psychiatrist who kept you prisoner all your life and deserves to be considered as you father, though he’s guilty like all the others? Like Broots, a man you think of as a friend and that you helped many times even if it is his job to hunt you? How much important is Miss Parker to your world, Jarod? I want to know!”

Zoe’s words only made Jarod think even more about Alex. He couldn’t lie.

“More”, he confessed to Zoe. “She’s probably the most important person to me. Alex was right…” he said, more to himself than to Zoe.

The woman stared at him in disbelief.

“I’m so sorry Zoe. You were right, I can’t pretend that Miss Parker doesn’t mean anything to me, because she’s everything to me. And you helped me understand that.”

“Well, you’re welcome!” she replied.

“Zoe…I’m so sorry to disappoint you… I know this might look like a stockholm syndrome towards my huntress…”

“Well, I’ve always known…I really hoped it was just paranoia, but you were different from the first second of this trip. So…you love her?”

 

“What did you tell her?”

Jarod smiled, “I guess my answer was something sloppy like, ‘Since I was eleven’…”

“She was very pissed?”

“Nope. She smiled.”

“What?!”

“She’s a romantic soul, she wanted to know if you loved me too. Imagine her reaction when I told her I’ve never asked you about your feelings and you didn’t know about mine.”

“What a show. So sorry I wasn’t there.” she teased him.

Jarod squeezed his eyes, pretending to be annoyed by her words, “Well you should thank Zoe, because she’s one of the reasons I told you the truth in Glasgow. Even if I knew that it would have been more difficult than any pretend I'd ever done before.”

“So you two are still friends?”

Jarod grinned, “Yes, we are. I helped her fighting cancer and going home to her family. You can’t forget something like that, Miss Parker. We finished our trip as the best of friends.”

Parker was glowing. She couldn’t believe how much she really loved that man. And above all she didn’t want to let him know how much his omnipresent grins affected her.

“Well Zoe must be very…interesting to deal with.”

“You have no idea. She’s the craziest woman I’ve ever met. And she’s full of life. And beautiful.”

“There better be a but, genius.”

 Jarod grinned once more and leaned in to kiss her from his side of the table.

“But…I belong to you.”

“Mmm…you’d better get a tattoo with ‘Miss Parker’s property’ written on you butt.”

“I might consider it, but now it’s my turn. I’ve been wondering just one thing from last night…”

“Tommy?” she asked in advance.

Jarod nodded, but in silence. She didn’t need to hear the question, he didn’t need to ask.

“I truly loved him. Like anyone else before. That was a different kind of love, for a man who was honest, generous and good. I guess in a way Thomas reminded me of you.” 

“Really?” he smiled tenderly.
“Thomas was the man you might have become if the Centre hadn’t exploited your skills. He was loyal, brave, funny, handsome and he believed in his ideals. He was everything I could wish for. And yet, I never told him that I loved him.”

“You didn’t have the time.” Jarod reminded her.

“I don’t know. Thomas was such a good man, but I was scared for our commitment, maybe I wasn’t ready to tell someone that I loved him. Maybe I knew deep inside that you and I were too connected to create a solid relationship with Thomas. When I agreed to leave with him, I really hoped I could forget you, for good.” Miss Parker wasn’t hungry anymore, her eggs were cold by now and she was playing with her fork, “I loved him very much, Jarod. I regret his death every single day.”

Jarod nodded, “Me too. I often wonder what would I have done if you’d really left with him.”

Miss Parker knew the answer, even if Jarod wasn’t sure.

“You would have disappeared, Jarod. Without me at the Centre, there would have been no need to contact me or Sydney.”

“Perhaps you’re right. I’ve always felt a connection with the people from my past, certainly not with the place that stole my freedom. And I knew Tommy would have made you happy, so I would have let you go.”

“And what about me? Living in doubt, not knowin what happened to you? Wondering where you were, everyday…I guess I would have bought newspaper just in hopes of finding news about a good Samaritan appearing in Portland to save the little guy.”

Jarod chuckled and so did she, but their thoughts soon came back to Thomas.

“I also wonder if Tommy would have told me the truth about you.”

“He couldn’t.”

“Why?”

“I made him promise not to, ever.”

Parker sighed, she didn’t understand the pretender’s behavior, “Jarod, why hiding such an important thing from me? Why not let me know the best part of you? Maybe everything would have been different…if you’d told me before…” she sighed.

“I don’t think so, Parker. Today it’s obvious that I sent Tommy to meet you because I cared for you, but just because now you know that I love you. If he’d told you back then, you would have thought that I was trying to manipulate you. And I really wanted you to leave, to be free. Tommy could save you from the Centre…”

Parker wanted to object, but she changed her mind, “Well, it’s useless to think about ifs and buts. Thomas is dead and it’s all my fault. He left a great void inside me…”

Jarod took her hand, “It’s so good to be able to confess you that I feel exactly the same. He was my friend, you know. We were real friends. We spoke often and he knew that I was a pretender. Maybe you were right before. Maybe Tommy was like me. He was alone, he’d lost his parents when he was young.” Parker nodded in understanding, “I saw something in Thomas, something I’d seen in you, too. He was strong but vulnerable, just like you. I was sure you would fit together like two pieces of the same puzzle. And believe me, Parker. I wouldn’t have intruded your life anymore, if Tommy hadn’t died.”

“I know.” Miss Parker squeezed Jarod’s hand. “I think that’s why I love you most, because you were ready to put my happiness at the first place, even if that meant you had to give up on us.”

Jarod’s hand left hers and came back to the fork. Parker let him eat his pancakes for a couple of minutes, then she spoke again.

“What about Nia?”

The fork Jarod was holding fell on the dish as he stared at Miss Parker with a smirk on his face.

“What’s this, the Ex parade?”

Miss Parker shook her head, “Did you love her?”

“You can’t love a person you’ve known for two days, Parker, but you can care deeply about her.”

“What happened to her?”

“She’s married, she has two children. I was very glad to discover that she’d found the right man. I also went to her wedding.”

Parker looked at him in disbelief, “You went to your first lover’s wedding with another man?”

Jarod shook his head, “I know you don’t understand. But Nia and I shared something. We understood each other completely, I met her in a moment of my life when I didn’t know almost anything about myself or my family, I wasn’t even aware of having siblings. She was alone like me, we consoled each other and I felt loved for the first time in my adult life.” 

“Well, I met her after you left. I knew that she wasn’t the usual target of one of your pretends. She described you like a lover, not like the hero who’d saved the day.”

Jarod noticed that Parker was blushing again, but not for the shame. It was something different.

“You were jealous!” he taunted her. When Miss Parker didn’t reply immediately, Jarod understood he was right.

“Ok, maybe I was.” She admitted. “I kept listening to your conversation with Sydney and thinking about our first kiss as children.”

Jarod smirked again, he’d never felt so satisfied before, “Well, I kept watching the DSA of our first meeting…”

“What a day…” she whispered.

“Yeah…” Jarod smiled. “And Tommy Tanaka?” Jarod blurted out suddenly, looking intentely at her. Miss Parker started to laugh and Jarod realized he’d never seen her so amused before.

“Well, Tommy was a…seasonal affair. We just had some very good sex, nothing more. You know…” she purred, “Japanese men are real masters of the art.”

Jarod grinned, “Better than a pretender?”

Parker’s voice took on a low sensual tone as she leaned over the table, “Absolutely not.”

She kissed him slowly and with passion, trying to convince the pretender of what she’d just said. When she sat back, she eased the tension by saying, “You should have seen Lyle’s face when he saw Tommy and I kissing in my father’s office…” she chuckled.

But her laugh soon faded, mentioning Lyle had brought Ethan back to their minds again. Parker noticed that Jarod’s good mood was disappearing, so she tried to keep on the conversation.

“So, the black widow?”

Jarod looked at her reproachfully, “Kristi was the worst error in judgment I’ve ever made. I was sure she was the innocent who needed my help, instead she was the culprit.”

Miss Parker heard resentment in his voice.

“I tried to help her after her husband’s death, but she manipulated me. And to think at that time I was trying to teach you something about trusting the right people, instead I was the first who put trust in the wrong person!”

“That’s when you sent me my mother’s quote about trust?”  

Jarod nodded, “When Kristi tried to kill me, she lured me into a house that was going to explode by telling me that she loved me. Later, I often wondered how could anyone lie about loving someone…”

“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “I’ve told the big words just to two persons.”

“If you say that Tommy Tanaka is one of them, I’ll have to shoot you with your own gun.”

Parker laughed, “No, you moron. The first was my mother, and since yesterday night, you.”

Jarod exhaled slowly and his eyes went from the dish on the table to hers, trying to remember how amazing Miss Parker had been the night before.

“You know that I really love you, don’t you?” she asked.

“Yes, I do. And you should know that, leaving out my family members, you are the only one.”

Miss Parker smiled slightly and decided that she was enjoying this confession time.

“And Michael Patrick?”

Parker punched the table, “Oh, come on, this isn’t fair!”

“You brought up the black widow!” he stated, quipping.

“Yeah, talking about errors in judgment…I didn’t know that Raines had hired him to find you. We’ve known each other for long, we used to fence together.”

Jarod looked at her in astonishment, “And I thought I knew everything about you!”

“In your dreams, lab rat. Well, we spent a few hours together while you were playing with fire in Pittsburgh, he had amazing sex with me while I had quite mediocre with him.”

Jarod smiled for her remark.

“I didn’t even know if he was really married.”

“He wasn’t.” Jarod commented. “I had some research done, later. But I often wondered why you slept with a man if you knew he was married. I was a bit…”

Parker sighed, “Disappointed?” Jarod nodded, “That wasn’t definitely the best part of me, Jarod. Sydney warned me, he told me I didn’t have enough healthy relationships in my life to compensate for what I was doing just for fun. That I was falling down an upward spiral because I couldn’t keep my feelings about you in check, and that would be my ruin.”

At that moment, Jarod realized that Sydney had been a surrogate father to him, but also to Miss Parker. And he was thankful for that.

“Well I was exhausted, I never managed to catch you and you behaved awfully with me…late phone calls, mind games, pranks and clues…I guess everything I was feeling for you came to the surface with Michael. In the wrong way. End of story.”

“That was after or before you broke the finger of an Italian friend of mine?” Jarod asked with a mischievous smile on his face.

Parker chuckled, “Later. Oh, Giuseppe…” she said.

“You really liked him, didn’t you?”

“What did he tell you about us?”

Jarod shrugged, “You dated for a month before he realized you were far too woman for him.”

Parker grinned, “I tried to corrupt his pure soul, but Giuseppe was a good guy, never really interested in satifying my…whims.” She explained, almost sensually. 

Jarod smirked, “What a fool!” Parker nodded in satisfaction “Well, I guess this is it. No more former lovers to talk about, am I right?”

“Well, I’ve heard something about that profiler, Rachel Burke…”

Jarod grimaced. He was sure Parker didn’t know about her, but he was wrong. She knew him very well, after all. And she was smiling again, “Come on, Boy Genius. It was my job to know everything about you, wasn’t it?”

Jarod nodded, “Rachel was different. I helped her with a stalker who was bothering her and we…liked each other. Rachel knew that I was no FBI agent, but I never told her the truth about me. We found solace in each other’s arms in a very dark period of my life. I hadn’t seen Zoe for months and I didn’t speak often with you either. It’s been a while, actually.”

“Well, for being a man who’s been isolated for 30 years, you’ve scratched more than one itch.”

Jarod laughed, “It’s really funny, Miss Parker. If I didn’t know you better, I’d say you really are jealous of my former girlfriends.”

“You’d wish!” she replied, naughtily. She waited for him to stop laughing, then she stared at him lovingly.

“Parker.”

“What?”

Jarod’s eyes narrowed, “What did you feel when you found out  that…we could be brother and sister?”

“Oh, speaking of which, you could have spared me calling me “Sis” that night, it was so unfair!”

Jarod smiled, “I’m sorry, Parker. But I couldn’t resist.”

She shooked her head and waited for the pretender to talk, “Well, I’m going to tell what I feel. When I found the red files I was very excited. But all that happiness disappeared as soon as I realized the eighth file was yours. I couldn’t help thinking about the words I’ve read in Catherine’s diary, what she said about her son. I started to believe that I could actually be your brother, I almost convinced myself.”

Miss Parker’s heart rate increased rapidly while Jarod kept talking, “Well at first I thought it could be wonderful, the best thing ever. I thought I could convince you to join me, my brain was telling me that it could be the solution to all my problems. I could come back to the Centre as a heir, a Parker. Not a lab rat anymore, but Mr. parker’s son. I had all these incredible scenarios coming to my head, where you and I would change the Centre and begin to rule it at our own way, as Catherine would have wanted…”

Parker smiled shyly, that was a nice thought, indeed.

“Then I started to panic. My heart made me understand that it wasn’t what I really wanted. I couldn’t stand the idea that the only woman I’d ever loved…would be the only one I would never have. It was unbearable, an overwhilming idea, I simply couldn’t accept it. While I was waiting for the test results narrowing your brother’s identity, I even began to make terrible plans.”

Parker almost closed her eyes, “Meaning?”

“I planned not to tell you, at least for a while.”

“What?! How could you – ”   

“Well, as soon as I got the results I calmed down and started to think coherently again. And I felt, you know…an incredible, huge relief.”

Parker stared at him in disbelief, “You would have hidden such an important information from me just to keep the status quo?”

“I felt it would be better that way, what we had…”

“What we had sucked, Jarod!”

He laughed at her angry tone. After a couple of seconds, she laughed too.

“Well, all I can tell you is that when we were in Oakview, with Angelo…and Davy…Well, I’d never heard my heart beating so fast, before that night. I was excited, and I was upset. I wanted to jump on you and to kill you at the same time. I couldn’t believe that the boy I’d shared my first kiss with…could be my brother. I knew I still felt something for that little boy, deep inside.”

“Did you?”

“Yeah.” She sighed, “And suddenly that stupid lab rat I used to get in trouble with when I was a kid could actually be my brother, how was I supposed to deal with something like that?!”

Parker sipped some coffee, “Anyway, before your revelation, I thought, ‘Well, it would be nice. It would be nice to have Jarod as a brother.’ So I gained control over myself again.”

“It would have been nice indeed, Parker.” Jarod smiled.

“Oh, stop it! Do you really think that after last night?”

Jarod glanced at her with a provocative grin on his mouth, then burst out laughing, “Nope.”

Parker laughed along, then she sighed, “The truth is I really wanted Angelo to be my twin.”

“I know”, Jarod smiled, grabbing her hand.

“Truth wasn’t easy to accept. I had to face the fact that my brother was a monster.”

For a second, Jarod saw Ethan’s corpse floating on the back of his mind.

“I had no choice but to accept it.”

Jarod nodded with complicity and understanding. He also had his difficulties to deal with the fact that Kyle was his brother when he still thought of him as a killer and a kidnapper.

Parker slowly breathed in, trying not to think about Lyle for a moment.

“Just one more thing. More personal.” She said.

“What?”

“The Saddest little Valentine...”

Jarod felt ashamed and uncomfortable, “I know, that was silly.”

“That’s not the first word that came to my mind when I read it. Why did you send me that candy, Jarod? Wasn’t it too obvious? For a moment, I really thought you cared for me.”

Jarod smiled, “I wrote that book in hopes I could destroy the walls you'd built around your heart. Later I met this woman I learned something from, a tough contractor who made me realize that the strongest women are often the most vulnerable, too. And when I called you that night on Valentine's Day I felt like I was actually closer to obtaining my purpose.”

“Jarod, I behaved like a bitch that night. I lied unashamedly and I scolded you as usual!”

“Yes you did.” They both laughed. “But I also heard your breath and your voice through the phone, they felt different. You asked me what the hell I wanted from you, the answer was under your eyes, written on that candy. I wanted your love. I tried to tell you with the book, the candy, the call. I even thought about coming in person, but I was afraid you weren’t ready.”

“I wasn’t. I probably would have taken your sorry ass back to the Centre, Jarod. But…I can’t be sure. Do you ever wonder what would have happened if you’d involved me in your life before? Without all those stupid clues and pranks, just by telling me the truth about your feelings…and not waiting until now…”

“Yes, I do. But I couldn’t afford trusting you, Parker. I couldn’t trust nobody. You and Sydney were the only important people of my life. He was like a father, you were my best friend. Do you have any idea how traumatic was for me to find out that you were the ones chosen to pursue me? For months I’ve blamed Sydney for everything and denied my true feelings for you. Then I slowly started to accept it. Like when I sent you the rabbit for Christmas…or when we were in Bahia Grande together, wasn’t it obvious that all I wanted to do was to kiss you?”    

“Did you?” she asked tenderly.

“I thought that if anything would happen between us, you needed to make the first step. And I was right, because you did, yesterday.”

Parker sighed. “Jarod, I was your pursuer. You played with me like a mouse with a cat. You sent me all those clues about my mother to drive me mad and…”

“No, Parker, that was never my goal. All I wanted to do was to teach you something. I wanted to tell you the truth. The real truth, not the one you’d been told by Mr. Parker. And if I’m sure of one thing is that I’ve never lied to you, did I?”

Parker shook her head, “Never. Not even once.”

Jarod smiled and took her hand, squeezing it gently. “All right. Am I allowed to finish my breakfast, now?”

Parker kissed his hand and let it go, then she watched him lovingly while he finished his food.

“Jarod.”

He gazed deeply into her eyes.

“What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know, Parker.”

He looked out of the window and sighed, “I don’t know.”